1 Peter 3:8-9

“To sum up, all of you be harmonious, sympathetic, loving, compassionate, and humble; not returning evil for evil or insult for insult, but giving a blessing instead; for you were called for the very purpose that you would inherit a blessing.”

What a list of virtues, we as believers, are called to live by and exhibit in our lives! And if I’m being completely transparent- they sometimes seem absent in the life of believers.

Harmonious living? Nothing seems harmonious anymore in today’s world. But I imagine that it did not seem too harmonious when Peter wrote these words either.

Life around us seems so individualistic. Everyone has their personal goals, their personal thoughts, their personal schedules, their personal opinions, etc and all of which seems to having us singing to different tunes. Nothing seems to sound pretty around us anymore.

On the contrary, harmonies are beautiful. They reflect unity. Harmonies are powerful and moving to the listener, to the observer and in verse 8, harmonious is what Peter says that we as the Church, should be!

Before Peter begins this list virtues, he precedes it with ‘all of you.’ We each have an individual responsibility to strive towards harmonious living and just one of us choosing to sing from a different page in the hymn book from all the others, damages the harmony God desires to establish with his people.

All in all, harmonies are truly captivating. So many different voices, so many different instruments with different tones and sounds coming together making beautiful sounds that reaches the heart and soul.

So, how does this happen? How is it possible to get so many different people with different thoughts, opinions, feelings, backgrounds, etc to live in this harmony and produce this beauty God calls for? We must simply play the same notes!

God’s words are the notes we must play and read! That is our unity and that alone will produce the like mindedness needed to produce the beautiful, captivating sound bellowing from the bride of Christ! God’s word alone is what will allow us to produce a beautiful harmony in an unharmonious world!